Entries tagged with latino

Haven't posted in a while. Here's a series of mini-reviews with some spoilers. Also, some of the books contain potentially triggering content.

6. Un-Nappily in Love by Trisha R. Thomas7. Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat8. Tracks by Louise Erdrich9. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid10. Umbrella by Taro Yashima11. Little Joy by Ruowen Wang12. Why War is Never a Good Idea by Alice Walker13. Erika-san by Allen Say14. Dahanu Road by Anosh Irani15. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell16. The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez17. In the Company of Ogres by A. Lee Martinez18. Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez19. Divine Misfortune by A. Lee Martinez20. Monster by A. Lee Martinez21. Certainty by Madeleine Thien22. So Long Been Dreaming edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan23. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo24. Too Many Curses by A. Lee Martinez25. A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez26. A Person of Interest by Susan Choi27. Apex Hides the Hurt by Colson Whitehead

(Full book title doesn't fit in the subject; it is The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male.)

Note: Max Valerio is the same person as Anita Valerio, as published in This Bridge Called My Back, which I know has been reviewed here. It would be nice if we could easily find all his works together through the tagging system, but I can't think of a way to do that without misgendering him. Any thoughts?

Max Valerio is a trans man (like me) who spent many years living in San Francisco (where I'm from). You might think there'd be a lot in his memoir that I could relate to, but for the most part you'd be wrong.

Oh, there is some. His portrait of the life and atmosphere of San Francisco in the 90s is pitch-perfect and often quite funny. (He should write a novel about the lesbian punk scene then.) I was nodding along to his struggles with deciding to transition and sifting out the right from the wrong information about trans people, and his worries about whether he would lose all his gay and lesbian friends if he became "straight". (He lost some -- so did I.)

Anyway, goes without saying I can't recommend the book. I did enjoy the parts of the memoir that weren't bogged down in sexist and transphobic nonsense, but that's about all I can say. It's a damn shame.